Brütal Legend

Post-Launch Review
Brütal Legend
Developer: Double Fine
Released: October 2009 (consoles) / February 2013 (PC)

About

Brütal Legend is a blend of action/adventure and RTS genres that follows Eddie Riggs, a roadie transported into a mystical land where metal is not just music, but a force of nature. Here, humanity is enslaved by demons, and only a handful of rebels fight back. Using his skills as a roadie, Eddie assembles an army, teaches them the ways of the metal gods, and kicks off a Tour of Destruction to vanquish the demonic emperor.

Mechanics and Narrative: RTS

As a disclaimer before I start, I don't play many RTS games. I played Star Wars: Empire at War extensively, but only against the AI. I've played Heroes of Might and Magic III. I've tried Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, Starcraft, Achron, and a few Command and Conquer games. That's pretty much it. So this article won't be extremely long or in-depth.

But there's a reason for that. I like games with good stories, and as a genre, RTS games are terrible at telling stories.

Gratuitous Space Battles

Developer: Positech Games

Released: November 2009

Gratuitous Space Battles is exactly what it sounds like. The developers said, you know what? Some people just want space battles without the burden of plot or drama or characterization. So here you go! GSB is a highly tactical 2D space combat sim with gazillions of options and a ton of complexity. It might look like an RTS, but due to the focus on setup it's more like tower defense.